2005-01-14 
 

tiny lights in the darkness

While waiting for the barbecue to heat up last night, I wandered out into the center of our rather small back yard. Looking up I could see the Pleiades framed between the leaves of the palm and the redwood.

I first met the sisters almost 15 years ago.

There's about 18 of us bundled up to help protect us from the biting cold that typifies a January night in Massachusetts. Someone passes around a flask of cheap whiskey, but I only take a small sip. Over the past week, I've become fascinated by the astronomy professor and have a deep desire to do well in his class. While whiskey is tempting, I want nothing to impair my ability to remember what he's teaching. We hike out into the middle of a large field. The frozen ground crunching beneath my feet sounds like adventure.

We gather around in a circle and Professor begins going over everything we've studied over the past week...except he's using the real sky instead of a representation in a textbook.

And so I met the Pleiades. Sure there's many other constellations that I like to look up at, but the Pleiades were met first and will always have a special place in my personal mythology.

I had a little smile inside me all last night, and again now as I type this.

Labels: dose of mikey, looking eastward, memory lane

* posted by me at 2:11 AM

Comments:

From Rufus Wainwright
Album: Want Two
Title: The Art Teacher

There I was in uniform
Looking at the art teacher
I was just a girl then;
Never have I loved since then

He was not that much older than I was
He had taken our class to the Metropolitan Museum
He asked us what our favorite work of art was,
But never could I tell it was him
Oh, I wish I could tell him --
Oh, I wish I could have told him

I looked at the Rubens and Rembrandts
I liked the John Singer Sargents
He told me he liked Turner
Never have I turned since then
No, never have I turned to any other man

All this having been said,
I married an executive company head
All this having been done, a Turner - I own one
Here I am in this uniformish, pant-suit sort of thing,
Thinking of the art teacher
I was just a girl then;
Never have I loved since then
No, never have I loved any other man

Your post reminded me of this song...Hope all is well in the east.

-Mr. Panic ;-)

# posted by Michael : 3:34 PM, January 14, 2005

 

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